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iil 


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SPEECH 


HON.  THOMAS  EWING, 


(1780-1871) 


UKL1VKKED  AT  A 


PUBLIC  FESTIVAL, 


GIVEN  HIM  BY  THE 


of  3&oss  Olmuttu, 


JUNK   1O.   1S:!T. 


Senera  W.  Ely,  printer,  Clnllicothc. 


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This  speech,  in  which  my  grandfather  reviews  the 
administration  of  President  Jackson,  is  reprinted  from 
a  copy  found  in  the  Congressional  Library. 

THOMAS  EWING. 
Yonkers,  N.  Y.,  July,  1924. 


* 


.,'  »»:«*>••; 

'•  ','«•  r  *I 


EWING'S  SPEECH. 

I  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  for  the  sentiment  of 
approbation  just  delivered;  and  you,  my  fellow-citi 
zens,  I  thank  you  heartily,  for  the  approving  spirit 
in  which  it  has  been  responded  to.  I  look  upon  the 
scene  which  is  before  me — upon  the  vast  concourse 
of  intelligent  and  patriotic  citizens  assembled  on  this 
occasion,  who  fill  the  grove  around  us,  with  feelings, 
to  which  I  will  not  attempt  to  give  utterance.  The 
impression  sinks  deep  in  my  heart,  and  will  remain 
among  its  most  cherished  recollections. 

I  am  just  relieved,  gentlemen,  from  a  long  and 
arduous  term  of  service  in  the  Councils  of  the  Nation, 
to  which  the  partiality  of  my  fellow-citizens  assigned 
me.  That  service  is  ended ;  and  I  will  devote  this  oc 
casion,  which  so  happily  occurs,  when  the  public  mind 
is  aroused  and  public  attention  awakened,  to  speak  of 
what  I  have  seen  and  believe,  as  to  the  movement  and 
tendency  of  our  Government  during  the  time  that  I 
have  watched  its  progress — studied  to  comprehend  its 
course.  There  are  epochs  in  the  history  of  nations, 
short,  perhaps,  in  their  development,  but  enduring  in 
their  effects,  which  give  them  a  tendency  and  a  char 
acter  that  remains  for  ages.  Such  was  the  accession 
of  Augustus  Csesar  to  the  consular  and  tribunitian 
power  in  Rome: — such  the  revolution  of  1688  in 
England.  The  two  instances  were  opposite  in  their 
effects,  but  alike  in  their  power,  and  in  their  perma 
nence.  All  agree  that  the  Administration  which  is  just 
passed  has  engraven  itself  deeply  on  the  history  of 
our  country;  that  our  institutions  have  felt,  and  must 
continue  to  feel  its  influence;  that  not  only  the  prac- 


5505G8 


but  the  principles  of  our  Government  have  been 
somewhat  clmnged: — all  agree  in  this.  Some  say  that 
they  have  been  improved,  others  say  they  have  been 
perverted ; — but  all  agree  that  a  bold  and  strong  hand 
has  been  upon  them,  and  marked  them  with  his  grasp. 
• — It  were  instructive,  then,  to  inquire  what  has  been 
the  tendency  of  our  Government  during  the  past  Ad 
ministration,  what  are  the  principles,  or  what  the  great 
principle,  which  gave  it  direction  and  impulse,  and 
which  the  present  Chief  Magistrate  has  pledged  him 
self  to  carry  out;  or,  to  use  the  language  of  a  modern 
philosopher,  as  original  as  he  is  profound,  What  is 
the  IDEA  which  the  past  administration  has  tended  to 
develope?  I  affirm,  that  it  is  the  IDEA  OF  UNITY — a 
tendency  to  concentrate  all  the  powers  of  the  Gov 
ernment  in  the  hands  of  one  man; — and  I  hold  my 
self  prepared  to  prove  it  by  a  review,  brief  though 
it  be,  of  the  leading  measures  of  the  Administration 
during  the  last  eight  years. 

I  will  place  first  in  order,  for  it  was  the  first  that 
attracted  my  attention,  and  called  forth  my  remon 
strance,  the  exercise,  for  party  objects  merely,  of  the 
power  of  appointment  and  removal  by  the  President. 
That  we  may  have  a  fair  field  before  us — that  we 
may  take  a  somewhat  comprehensive  view  of  this 
important  subject — let  us  look  back  to  the  time  of  the 
second  Adams,  and  hear  the  opinion  of  those  now  in 
power  and  influence,  on  the  nature  and  tendency  of 
this  branch  of  Executive  patronage. 

During  the  four  years  of  that  Administration,  two 
individuals,  and  two  only,  whose  names  appear  on  the 
records  of  the  Senate,  were  removed  from  office;  nor 
was  it  pretended  that  those  removals  were  for  party 
purposes:  and,  within  the  same  four  years,  some  five 
or  six  printers  of  the  public  laws  were  changed.  The 
change  of  printers  was  alleged  to  be  made  for  party 


purposes,  with  how  much  or  how  little  truth  I  will 
not  now  stop  to  inquire ;  but  it  became  a  standing 
theme  of  declamation  and  reproach ;  and  during  that 
Administration,  a  few — but  the  number  was  small  in 
deed — of-  the  members  of  Congress,  were  appointed 
to  office  by  the  President.  They  were,  in  fact,  treated 
just  as  other  citizens  were  treated;  neither  preferred 
nor  rejected  t>ecause  of  their  station.  Still  the 
patriots  of  that  day,  who  are  the  supporters  of  power 
in  this,  saw  danger  to  our  institutions,  from  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  appointing  and  removing  power.  So  im 
portant  was  the  subject  deemed — so  imminent  the 
danger — that,  in  the  session  of  1825-'6,  a  committee 
of  the  Senate  was  raised  specially  to  examine  and  re 
port  upon  the  subject ;  and  it  is  but  justice  to  say 
that  they  did  their  duty  well.  They  do,  in  their  Re 
port,  with  great  accuracy  and  exactness,  point  out  as 
probable,  the  very  mischief,  which  they,  when  they 
possessed  themselves  of  that  power,  hastened  to  in 
flict  on  the  country.  The  Report  to  which  I  refer  was 
made  by  Mr.  Benton,  as  chairman  of  the  committee, 
on  the  4th  day  of  May,  1826.  I  will  trouble  you 
with  reading  a  few  extracts,  which  contain,  as  I  think, 
much  theoretic  truth  and  speculative  wisdom. 

After  speaking  of  the  theory  of  a  Government, 
when  the  laws  should  execute  themselves  without 
human  agency,  "the  scene,"  says  the  Report,  "shifts 
to  the  theatre  of  real  life,  when  they  are  executed 
by  civil  and  military  officers ;  by  armies  and  navies ; 
by  courts  of  justice,  by  the  collection  and  disburse 
ment  of  revenue,  with  all  its  train  of  jobs  and  con 
tracts  ;  and,  in  this  aspect  of  the  reality,  we  behold 
the  working  of  PATRONAGE,  and  discover  the  reason 
why  so  many  stand  ready  in  any  country,  and  in  all 
ages,  to  flock  to  the  standard  of  power,  wheresoever 
and  by  whomsoever  it  may  be  raised.''  The  report 


then  refers  to  the  Blue  Book — the  political  register  of 
that  day — to  show  the  extent  of  that  patronage,  and 
adds,  that  "the  reduction  of  the  public  debt,  and  the 
income  of  the  public  revenue,  will  multiply  in  a  four 
fold  degree  the  number  of  persons  in  the  service  of 
the  Federal  Government,  the  quantity  of  money  in 
their  hands,  and  the  objects  to  which  it  is  applicable ;" 
which,  it  adds,  will  increase  in  geometrical  progres 
sion  the  powers  of  the  Government  and  bring  it  to 
a  degree  of  energy  beyond  the  power  of  mind  to  cal 
culate  or  to  comprehend."  I  would  that  I  had  the 
Blue  Book  of  that  year  and  of  this,  to  show,  by  the 
contrast,  how  true  has  been  the  prediction,  and  how 
vast  the  increase  of  the  number  of  the  officers  who 
subsist  on  the  patronage  of  the  Executive.  "The 
amount  of  money  to  be  applied,"  says  the  Report,  "will 
increase  in  a  fourfold  degree;"  and  so  it  has.  The 
appropriations  for  all  purposes,  except  the  public  debt, 
was  then  less  than  twelve  millions ; — ten  years  after, 
in  1836,  it  was  upwards  of  forty-eight  millions, — and 
the  author  of  that  Report,  now  arrayed  on  the  side 
of  power,  and  supporting  its  "STANDARD,"  attempted 
to  swell  that  appropriation  to  more  than  eighty  mil 
lions  ! 

But  the  direct  effect  of  Executive  influence  over 
and  through  these  public  offices  and  the  public  funds, 
is  further  developed,  in  another  paragraph  of  the 
same  Report.  Having  presented  a  bit  from  the  Blue 
Book,  the  paper  proceeds: — "A  formidable  bit  indeed! 
— formidable  in  numbers,  and  still  more  so  from  the 
vast  amount  of  money  in  their  hands.  The  action  of 
such  a  body  of  men,  supposing  them  to  be  animated 
by  the  same  spirit  must  be  tremendous  in  an  election: 
and  that  they  will  be  so  animated  is  a  proposition  too 
plain  to  need  demonstration. — Power  over  a  man's 
support  has  always  been  held  and  admitted  to  be  power 


over  his  ivill.  The  President  has  power  over  the  sup 
port  of  all  these  officers;  and  they  again  have  power 
over  the  support  of  debtor  merchants,  to  the  amount 
of  ten  millions  of  dollars  per  annum ;  and  they  again 
have  power  over  the  support  of  an  immense  number 
of  individuals,  professional  mechanics,  and  day-labor 
ers,  to  whom  they  can,  and  will  extend  or  deny  a 
valuable  public  and  private  patronage,  according  to  the 
part  which  they  shall  act  in  State,  as  well  as  in  Fed 
eral  elections."  The  Report  goes  on  to  show  that  this 
mighty  concentration  of  patronage  and  power,  in  the 
hands  of  the  Executive — "is  an  overmatch  for  the 
power  and  influence  of  STATE  patronage; — that  its 
workings  will  contaminate  the  purity  of  all  elections, 
and  enable  the  Federal  Government  eventually  to  gov 
ern  throughout  the  States  as  effectually  as  if  they  were 
so  many  provinces  of  our  vast  empire." 

No  one  can  doubt  that  the  dangers  to  the  purity 
of  elections  and  to  the  liberties  of  the  country,  here 
pointed  out,  were  imminent,  if  the  Government  should 
fall  into  the  hands  of  men  disposed  to  make  the  worst 
possible  use  of  power.  So  the  Report  views  it; — so 
we  all  must  feel  it.  But  might  it  not  have  been  hoped, 
that  in  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives, 
some  checks  would  be  interposed  to  this  perverted 
political  action ; — that  they,  the  guardians  of  the  peo 
ple's  rights,  would  interpose  and  save  the  country 
from  ruin  and  the  people  from  bondage? — No — the 
Report  goes  on  to  show,  that  such  hope  would  be 
vain.  "The  intended  check  and  control  of  the  Senate, 
without  new  constitutional  or  statutary  provisions, 
will  cease  to  operate ; — patronage  will  penetrate  this 
body;  subdue  its  capacity  of  resistance,  chain  it  to  the 
car  of  power,  and  enable  the  President  to  rule  as 
easily,  and  much  more  securely,  with  than  without  this 
nominal  check  of  the  Senate.  It  then  looks  forward 


to  the  time  when  the  nomination  by  the  President  can 
carry  any  man  through  the  Senate,  and  any  measure 
through  the  two  Houses  of  Congress;  when  the  prin 
ciple  of  public  action  shall  be  open  and  avowed,  the 
president  wants  my  vote  and  I  want  his  patronage: 
I  will  vote  as  he  wishes  and  he  ivill  give  me  the  office 
I  -wish  for.  What  will  this  be  but  a  government  of 
one  man,  and  what  is  a  Government  of  one  man  but  a 
monarchy." 

These  are  the  weapons,  which,  in  the  opinion  of  that 
committee,  a  President  who  should  wish  to  concen 
trate  all  the  powers  of  the  Government  in  his  hands, 
could  at  once  seize  and  wield  against  the  liberties  of 
his  country;  and  I  have  quoted  it  the  more  at  large, 
as  it  goes  to  establish  a  full  and  perfect  knowledge 
on  the  part  of  those  lately  in  power,  and  those  who 
still  retain  it,  that  the  abuse  of  the  power  of  appoint 
ment  and  removal — its  application  to  mere  party  pur 
poses — its  direction  to  the  sole  object  of  sustaining 
those  in  power  without  regard  to  the  public  welfare, 
must,  in  time,  go  far  to  establish  the  Government  of 
one  man,  which,  whatever  name  it  may  assume,  is  in 
substance  a  monarchy. 

I  have  said  that  in  four  years  next  preceding  the 
Administration  of  General  Jackson,  there  were  two 
removals  from  office,  among  those  higher  officers 
which  require  the  confirmation  of  the  Senate.  In 
the  two  first  years  of  General  Jackson's  Administra 
tion,  there  were  upwards  of  three  hundred  in  the  same 
class  of  officers — more  than  three  times  the  number 
of  all  that  were  removed  during  the  first  forty  years 
of  the  existence  of  our  Government.  Nor  was  the 
hand  of  power  limited  even  there.  The  doctrine  was 
openly  avowed  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
"that  to  the  victors  belong  the  spoils  of  victory." 
The  change  of  parties  and  the  transfer  of  power,  was 
like  the  sack  of  a  city. — The  public  weal  was  not  cared 


for,  but  the  public  property  was  seized.  Within  the 
same  two  years,  in  all  the  offices,  high  and  low,  the 
removals  amounted  to  more  than  eleven  hundred,  and 
no  appointment  was  made  except  of  active  polit 
ical  partizans.  During  the  six  following  years  the 
eye  of  the  Executive  has  been  upon  the  officers,  great 
and  small,  throughout  the  United  States,  watching, 
not  the  faithful  discharge  of  their  official  duty,  but 
their  due  adherence  to  party  discipline,  and  their  strict 
discharge  of  party  obligation.  If  any  but  a  political 
adherent  remained  in  the  discharge  of  a  public  trust, 
no  matter  how  small  the  office,  or  how  faithful  the 
officer,  he  was  removed,  and  a  partizan  fills  his  place. 
If  any  political  partizan  remits  his  exertion,  or  his 
thorough  adherence  is  doubted,  he  is  removed,  and 
another  more  active  and  efficient  supplies  his  place. 
Thus,  in  time,  the  whole  corps  of  office  holders,  whose 
names,  closely  printed,  fill  a  volume  of  five  hundred 
pages,  has  become,  what  it  was  predicted  in  the  Re 
port  just  referred  to,  they  would  become,  an  active, 
efficient,  organized  band  throughout  all  the  States, 
from  the  centre  to  the  extremity  of  the  Union,  whose 
efforts  are  constant  to  support  the  party  that  sustain 
them,  and  centre  all  the  powers  of  the  Government 
in  the  hands  of  the  man  who  is  the  head  of  that  party. 
— All  that  could  be  done,  in  this  particular,  to  carry 
out  to  its  worst  results  this  defective  feature  in  our 
Constitution,  pointed  out  by  the  Report,  has  been  done, 
and  still  is  in  progress. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  removal  of  those  from  office 
who  were  not  active  and  efficient  electioneering  parti 
zans.  The  record  of  the  Senate  and  the  several  De 
partments  shows  the  fact  of  their  removal,  and  I  have 
only  to  appeal  to  your  own  consciousness  here  and  in 
every  other  town  and  city  in  the  United  States,  where 
there  are  any  officers  of  the  Government  stationed, 


8 


whether  the  present  incumbents  do  not  act,  as  if  they 
held  it  a  part  of  their  official  duty  to  take  charge  of 
the  polls  at  your  elections,  and  use  all  their  power, 
personally  and  officially  to  control  them.  This  has 
been  the  tenure  by  which  they  held  their  offices ;  and 
if  any  one  hesitated  to  do  the  work  assigned  him — 
if  he  were  tardy  or  scrupulous  as  to  the  means — he 
was  thrown  out  of  employment;  perhaps  deprived  of 
support,  and  his  character  vilified  by  the  pensioned 
presses. 

Another  point  of  attack  through  this  same  power, 
when  it  could  be  brought  to  bear  with  full  force 
against  the  liberties  of  the  country,  is  pointed  out  in 
a  part  of  that  Report  which  I  have  just  read.  The 
Senate,  by  the  Constitution,  holds  the  negative  on 
all  the  principle  appointments  to  office,  but  the  Com 
mittee  say,  that  "patronage  will  enter  into  and  cor 
rupt  that  body; — that  the  President  can  govern  as 
absolutely  and  in  more  security  with,  than  without, 
its  nominal  check; — and  that  his  power,  will  in  time, 
be  sufficient  to  carry  any  man  through  the  Senate. "- 
Was  this  verified  in  the  result?  Did  patronage  en 
ter  that  body,  on  the  accession  of  the  late  Adminis 
tration  to  power?  Have  we  forgotten  how  many 
Senators  were  at  once  selected  to  fill  important  Ex 
ecutive  offices?  More  in  the  last  eight  years  than 
under  all  the  previous  administrations  of  our  Gov 
ernment.  I  need  not  name  them,  or  say  to  you  that 
our  present  Chief  Magistrate  heads  the  list.  Such 
were  the  means  that  were  fixed  upon  and  pursued 
to  subjugate  the  Senate — the  Executive  was  there 
manifest  in  that  chamber,  ready  to  raise  to  offices  of 
distinction,  all  who  gave  him  their  unflinching  sup 
port.  The  effort  was  early  made,  and  it  was  con 
tinued  long  to  subdue  the  independence  of  the  Senate. 
But  the  resistance  was  noble,  and,  for  a  long  time, 
successful.  The  single  weapon,  Patronage,  was  not 


enough  to  overthrow  it.  But,  to  subdue  its  capacity 
of  resistance  and  chain  it  to  the  car  of  power,  an 
other  effective  engine,  moved  by  the  same  hand,  was 
brought  into  action.  Executive  patronage  was  suc 
cessively  and  carefully  applied  to  the  States  whose 
Legislatures  held,  successively,  the  appointment  of 
Senators,  until,  in  the  language  of  the  Report,  "its 
workings  contaminated  the  purity  of  elections"  and 
enabled  the  Executive,  at  last,  to  select  a  large  pro 
portion  of  the  members  of  the  body.  The  effect  was 
at  last  successful,  and  the  Senate's  capacity  of  resist 
ance  was  subdued. 

This  atrocious  principle  of  reward  for  partisan 
service,  and  punishment  for  opposition,  was  carried 
beyond  the  mere  Executive  offices,  into  the  two  Houses 
of  Congress,  and  the  whole  weight  of  Executive  pow 
er  was  brought  to  bear  on  each  member  of  Congress, 
in  either  House,  who  dared  to  oppose  an  Executive 
measure,  or  expose  the  abuse  and  corruption  of  an 
Executive  Department.  Sometimes  the  weight  of  the 
Executive  arm  was  sufficient  to  crush,  at  once,  its 
virtues.  If  that  were  withstood,  arrangements,  ar 
tifice  and  fraud  did  the  work.  This  was  followed 
out  as  a  fixed  and  constant  system,  until  the  Presi 
dent,  and  not  the  People,  or  the  Representatives  of 
the  People,  is  looked  to  as  the  source  of  all  power, 
and  distributor  of  all  patronage. 

To  give  this  system  its  full  and  extended  influence, 
— to  enlarge  its  sphere  of  action  and  increase  its  ef 
fects, — new  offices  were  created;  old  ones  multiplied 
or  used  as  multipliers,  and  salaries  were  increased. 
Witness  the  Indian  agents  and  sub-agents ;  Commis 
sioners  to  make  treaties ;  Commissioners  to  appraise 
property,  and  agents  to  remove  Indians  and  locate 
reservations ;  and  witness,  especially,  our  diplomatic 
relations  with  foreign  powers.  Take,  for  example, 
the  mission  to  Russia.  Mr.  Middleton  was  re-called  to 


10 

make  place  for  Mr.  Randolph.  Mr.  Randolph  re 
turned  to  make  place  for  Mr.  Buchanan ;  Mr.  Buchan 
an,  for  Mr.  Wilkins,  who  yields  to  Mr.  Dallas,  mak 
ing,  in  eight  years,  four  new  Foreign  Ministers,  at 
an  extra  expense — a  waste  of  money  on  that  Mission 
of  $52,500.  No  one  will  pretend  that  the  country  was 
better  served  than  if  the  first  named  Minister  had 
remained  at  his  post;  but  the  appointing  power  was 
extended,  and  the  reward  of  political  partizans  in 
creased. 

In  some  of  the  great  Departments  of  our  Govern 
ment,  commonly  styled  "Executive,"  and  for  the  last 
eight  years,  under  the  most  entire  and  absolute  Ex 
ecutive  control,  the  public  money  has  been  corruptly 
squandered  to  acquire  and  extend  Executive  influence ; 
or  the  subordinate  officers  of  those  Departments  have 
been  permitted,  through  the  medium  of  their  offices, 
to  enrich  themselves  and  their  friends  and  partizans 
out  of  the  public  property,  or  by  illegal  speculations 
upon  individuals  whom  their  offices  placed  in  their 
power;  thus  making  submission  to  the  Executive  and 
adherence  to  the  party  in  power — a  road  to  wealth 
open  to  the  restless  and  ambitious.  Much  of  this  has 
been  disclosed  in  the  Indian  branch  of  the  War  De 
partment;  much  more  in  that  part  of  the  Treasury 
which  has  charge  of  Public  Lands  and  Deposite 
Banks:  and  still  more — for  that  office  alone  has  been 
investigated  fully,  and  its  frauds  exposed — still  more 
in  the  General  Post  Office,  which,  in  consequence  of 
the  extent  of  its  corruptions,  and  its  efficiency  as  an 
electioneering  agent,  has  also  risen  to  the  dignity  of 
an  Executive  Department.  I  am  not,  gentlemen,  either 
uncharitable  or  unjust  in  charging  upon  the  late  Ex 
ecutive  and  his  Cabinets,  (actual  and  potential,)  the 
frauds  which  were  disclosed  in  the  General  Post  Of 
fice.  They  were  not  the  affairs  of  a  day — or  the  single 


11 


act  of  peculation  or  fraud  of  an  obscure  or  subor 
dinate  agent;  no,  it  was  a  system  adopted  and  acted 
upon  for  a  series  of  years — commencing  by  a  false 
Report  from  the  head  of  the  Department,  in  the  ses 
sion  of  1830,  and  continued  by  acts,  year  after  year, 
more  corrupt,  and  Reports  more  false,  until  the  veil 
that  half  covered,  but  did  not  conceal  their  abomina 
tions,  was,  finally,  in  1835,  rent  from  them,  and  they 
were  exposed  to  the  world  in  all  their  naked  deformity. 
It  were  vain  to  attempt  the  casting  off  of  those  crimes 
which  even  a  political  pensioned  press  could  not  open 
ly  sustain — it  were  vain  to  cast  those  crimes  upon  the 
miserably  inefficient  individual  who  was  the  nominal 
head  of  that  Department.  It  was  the  work  of  those 
who  made  up  the  Executive.  The  measures  of  that 
Department  were  Executive  measures,  and  its  corrup 
tions  were  of  Executive  counsel  and  head.  I  make  not 
these  assertions  without  evidence  to  my  own  mind,  at 
least,  entirely  conclusive. 

In  the  session  of  1830-'31,  a  proposition  was  made 
in  the  Senate  to  investigate  the  affairs  of  the  Gen 
eral  Post  Office,  founded  upon  the  great  and  flagrant 
abuses  which  were  alleged  to  have  crept  into  the  ad 
ministration  of  its  affairs.  The  committee  was  ap 
pointed,  they  detected  many  abuses ; — among  others 
the  altering  of  a  word  in  sundry  places  for  the  evi 
dent  purpose  of  impeaching  the  oath  of  an  individual 
who  had  been  dismissed  from  office  for  lack  of  sub 
serviency.  When  the  proof  thickened,  and  the  ap 
pearance  of  guilt  became  strong,  the  wily  Chairman 
of  the  standing  committee  on  the  Post  Office  and 
Post  Roads,  (Mr.  Grundy,)  who  was  also  on  the 
select  committee,  raised  an  objection  to  evidence, 
without  having  that  objection  acted  on  in  the  com 
mittee  ;  he  brought  it  before  the  Senate,  and  on  that 
a  debate  arose  which  wore  out  the  session.  Thus  the 


12 


investigation  was  for  that  time  eluded.     Afterwards, 
I  think  it  was  in  the  year  1832-'3,  another  investiga 
tion  was  elicited  by  the  loud  and  continued  complaints 
of  abuses  in  the  Department.     I  was  at  that  time  a 
member  of  the  Post  Office  committee,  of  which  Mr. 
Grundy  was  still  chairman.     I  was  in  a  minority,  and, 
during  the  whole   investigation,   I   never  saw  a  wit 
ness,  or  a  paper  of  any  kind  relating  to  the  affairs  of 
the  office,  until  the  chairman  produced  his  report  and 
read  it,  denying  all  the  charges  touching  the  conduct 
of  the  Postmaster  General  and  his  subordinates,  and 
speaking  in  high  terms  of  the  flourishing  condition  of 
the    Department,    its    facilities   and   its    finances.      In 
1833-'4,  the  majorities  were  changed,  and  then  took 
place  an  investigation  in  good  faith :  and  then  it  was 
that  all  those  enormous    abuses,    which    had    before 
forced  themselves  upon  the  knowledge  of  the  public, 
were  disclosed  and  exposed.     The  Executive,  and  the 
minions  of  the  Executive,  did  not  yield  to  the  point. 
They  denied   what  was   proved  to  demonstration   it 
self.     They  assailed,  with  all  the  fierceness  of  baffled 
avarice  and  deep  seated  malignity,  all  who  were  con 
cerned  in  forwarding  the  investigation,  and  especially 
men  who  supported  its  most  active  mover  and  pro 
moter. 

Accompanying  the  Report,  which  I,  as  the  organ 
of  the  committee,  at  that  time  presented,  was  a  resolu 
tion  condemnatory  of  one  of  the  secret  and  lawless 
acts  done  by  the  head  of  the  Department.  That  reso 
lution,  the  only  one  voted  on,  was  carried  unanimously 
in  the  Senate — no  one,  however  strong  his  party 
feelings,  choosing  to  stain  his  own  character  with  his 
support  of  the  act.  This,  however,  did  not  silence 
the  pensioned  press,  or  the  clamors  of  those  who  were 
battening  on  the  spoils.  The  investigation  was  con 
tinued  and  carried  out ;  a  committee  of  the  House 


13 


joined  in  the  inquiry,  and  fully  corroborated  all  that 
had  been  shown  by  that  of  the  Senate ;  and  then,  and 
not  till  then,  were  the  Executive  engines  silenced,  and 
their  blood  hounds  called  of?  from  the  chase.  But 
how  were  those  who  had  been  detected  and  exposed  in 
official  falsehood — in  aiding  his  friends  and  political 
retainers,  and  political  partizans,  to  peculate  upon 
the  revenues  of  the  department;  and  how  were  those 
who  themselves  joined  in  the  peculation  and  shared 
the  spoils,  dealt  with  by  the  head  of  our  free  and  just 
republic?  Barry,  who  had  been  the  actor  or  the  in 
strument — who  had  committed  much,  and  permitted 
all — was  allowed  to  retire  upon  a  foreign  mission ;  and 
Obadiah  B.  Brown,  convicted  of  altering  and  falsify 
ing  the  books  of  the  Department — with  40,000  dollars 
of  the  Public  money  in  his  hands  unaccounted  for— 
was  allowed  to  resign : — and  when,  at  last,  the  Gen 
eral  Post  Office  was  consumed,  he  was  made  the 
keeper  of  all  the  books  and  papers  which  were  saved 
from  the  flames. 

Now,  from  the  very  face  of  this  narrative,  plain 
and  simple — detailing  events  in  their  order,  as  they 
occurred — can  any  one  doubt,  that  the  keen-sighted, 
intelligent  leaders  of  the  party  in  Washington — 
those  whom  the  President  most  counselled  and  most 
telied  on — knew  and  approved  what  was  done  and 
doing  in  the  General  Post  Office?  Why,  when  all  the 
Cabinet  was  dismissed,  for  the  purpose  of  making  it 
a  UNIT,  was  Mr.  Barry  alone  excepted,  unless  it  were 
to  carry  on  the  scheme  of  corruption  which  was  be 
gun,  and  was  to  be  persevered  in  without  fear  of 
scruples  which  might  arise  in  the  mind  of  a  successor, 
and  interfere  with  the  system?  Whv,  when  in  either 
House  of  Congress,  that  Department  was  especially 
challenged  and  accused  by  the  opposition — why  did 
not  the  Executive  himself  cause  its  conduct  and  con- 


14 


dition  to  be  specially  inquired  into,  and  its  errors  cor 
rected?    And  how  is  it  possible  to  believe,  that  we,  of 
the  Opposition,  to  whom  the  doors  of  that  Depart 
ment  were,  in  a  great  degree  closed,  should  discover 
and  expose  abuses  unknown  to  those  who  were  as 
familiar  in  the  Department  as  they  were  at  their  own 
firesides?     Why,    at    last,    when    condemning    proof 
was  adduced  against  it,  did  the  Executive,   and  his 
presses,  and  his  minions  of  all  grades,  sustain  those 
who  had  betrayed  their  public  trust,  and  attack  and 
pursue,  with  a  fiend-like  fury,  all  who  had  aided  in 
its  exposure?     And  why,  at  last,  appoint  to  an  hon 
orable  office  the  head  of  that  Department  whom  public 
opinion  compelled  to  retire  from  it  for  flagrant  abuse 
of  his  official  trust?     The  answer  to  all  these  inquir 
ies  is  obvious ;  it  was  a  part  of  the  general  system  of 
the  Administration  so  to    conduct    that    Department, 
because,  by  so  conducting  it,  they  released  it  from 
the  restraint  and  obligation  of  law — it  became  subject 
to  Execute  discretion. — The  amount  of  money  to  be 
disbursed  on  "jobs  and  contracts"  was  increased ;  and 
the  number  of  men  who  could  be  employed  and  in 
fluenced  was  increased  also.    The  abuse,  therefore,  of 
that  Department  was  an  Executive  measure,  adopted 
for  the  purpose  of  strengthening  the  Executive  arm. 
The  VETO  was  another  weapon  used  by  the  Presi 
dent  to  place  his  power  above  all  other  powers  of  the 
Government,  and  to  absorb  them  all.     He  found  in  it 
a  safeguard  of  Executive  rights,  placed  in  the  Consti 
tution   to  guard   against  legislative   encroachment : — 
he  so  used  it,  that  it  gave  him  sovereign  power  over 
all  active  legislation — power  to  permit  or  to  forbid  it. 
The  means  of  patronage  and  influence  which  I  have 
already   considered,   were    sufficient,   in   all   most   all 
cases,  to  control,  if  not  a  majority,  at  least  one  third 
of  one  branch  of  Congress.     When  this  number  was 


15 


once  secured,  no  law  could  pass  which  was  displeas 
ing  to  the  President,  for  his  VETO  was  efficient  to  ar 
rest  and  defeat  it;  but  if  the  country  called  so  loudly 
for  the  measure,  that  even  Executive  influence  could 
not  command  a  third  part  of  either  House;  if  the 
majority  of  both  branches  were  overwhelming,  as  to 
amount  almost  to  unanimity,  there  was  still  another 
resource — a  choice  few  could  be  obtained  who  would 
devise  pretexts  for  delays: — the  measure  demanded  by 
the  People,  but  obnoxious  to  the  Executive,  would  be 
postponed  to  within  ten  days  of  the  close  of  the  ses 
sion,  and  instead  of  returning  the  bill,  with  a  veto, 
his  mode  was  to  destroy,  by  withholding  it.  Such,  for 
example,  was  the  case  with  the  bill  rescinding  the 
Treasury  Circular,  which  is  fresh  in  the  recollection 
of  you  all,  and  which,  with  other  acts,  equally  arbi 
trary,  has  inflicted  unparalleled  injury  and  suffering 
on  our  country. 

The  exercise  of  the  Veto,  aided  by  the  other,  more 
important,  because  more  effectual,  Executive  preroga 
tive,  of  retaining  a  bill  passed  by  more  than  two-thirds 
of  both  branches,  and  thus  preventing  the  further 
action  of  Congress  upon  it,  has,  for  the  last  eight 
years,  made  the  President  of  the  United  States  abso 
lute  in  his  power  of  preventing  legislation.  No  law 
could  be  passed,  however  much  it  might  be  demanded 
by  the  country,  if  it  did  not  suit  his  purposes  and  meet 
his  concurrence.  As  to  active  legislation,  this  was 
assumed  in  another  manner. 

The  President  was  sworn  to  support  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  see  that  the  laws  were  faithfully  executed. 
By  virtue  of  this  oath  of  office,  and  of  this  Constitu 
tional  injunction,  the  late  President  claimed  the  right 
to  expound  and  construe  the  Laws,  and  determine  for 
himself  their  meaning  and  extent,  and  also  their 
agreement  with  the  Constitution.  Although  the 


16 


judicial  power  is  placed  in  other  hands — though  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  would  be  but  a 
useless  toy,  if  this  power  of  construction  were  vested 
in  the  President ;  nevertheless,  he  claimed  and  exer 
cised  it — and  that,  too,  against  a  decision  of  the  Su 
preme  Court  upon  the  very  point.  It  will  be  at  once 
seen,  that  if  such  claim  be  admitted  and  sustained, 
the  President  if  he  be  unscrupulous  or  capricious,  may 
make  our  laws  say  whatsoever  may  suit  his  own  pur 
poses.  The  Judicial  power  cannot  correct  nor  con 
trol  him,  for  in  the  construction  of  the  laws,  his  very 
claim  is  the  power  of  revising  and  correcting  the  de 
cisions  of  the  Courts. — The  Legislative  branches  can 
not  control  him ;  for  his  ^^eto  poiver,  his  power  to  post 
pone,  and  finally,  to  retain  bills  which  conflict  with  his 
purposes,  make  him  absolute  in  saying  what  the  lan> 
shalt  be  or  is,  and  perfectly  absolute  in  making  it  re 
main  as  he  has  pronounced  it.  Nothing  more  strongly 
evinces  the  wantonness  and  absurdity  of  uncontrolled 
power  than  the  distinctions  which  the  late  President 
built  up  for  himself,  on  which  to  rest  a  reason  for 
doing  what  he  willed  to  do,  and  for  refusing  to  do 
what  was  not  pleasing  to  him.  For  instance,  he  ve 
toed  the  bill  making  an  appropriation  for  the  Mays- 
ville  and  Lexington  road — which  was  urged  and 
passed  as  part  of  a  great  line  of  communication  from 
Washington  City  to  Florence,  in  Alabama,  branching 
off  from  the  Cumberland  Road  at  Zanesville: — he 
vetoed  the  bill  giving  aid  to  this  all  important  and 
national  work,  on  the  ground  of  alleged  unconstitu- 
tionality,  while  at  the  same  time  he  signed  the  bills 
wrhich,  year  after  year,  made  heavy  appropriations 
on  the  Cumberland  road,  a  part  of  the  same  great 
undertaking,  and  resting  on  precisely  the  same  prin 
ciple,  so  far  as  I  could  conceive,  of  nationality  in  its 
object.  The  distinction  taken  by  General  Jackson 


17 


was,  that  the  appropriation  for  the  Cumberland  road 
was  made  obligatory  a  contract  with  the  new  States ; 
as  if  a  contract  to  violate  the  Constitution  could  give 
a  right  to  violate  it.  No,  fellow-citizens,  it  was  a 
mere  pretence  to  extend  Executive  discretion,  and  to 
compel  those  who  sought  the  passage  of  laws  favour 
able  to  their  sections  of  the  country,  to  seek  it  through 
Executive,  rather  than  the  Legislative,  action.  That 
no  actual  constitutional  scruple  ever  did  rest  upon  the 
mind  of  the  President,  and  prevent  his  sanction  of 
that  law,  I  infer  from  another  distinction  still  more 
ridiculous,  which  he  adopted  in  another  class  of 
cases. — Many  appropriations  were  made  by  Congress 
for  the  improvement  of  our  rivers,  which,  (with  some 
exceptions,  that  I  need  not  here  stop  to  point  out,) 
rest  on  precisely  the  same  ground  with  roads  and 
canals.  The  President  undertook  to  discriminate 
among  them,  and  to  make  some  constitutional  and 
others  not;  and  the  rule  which  he  lay  down  was,  that 
all  which  were  below  a  port  of  entry  were  constitu 
tional,  and  he  gave  them  his  sanction ;  all  above,  vio 
lated  the  Constitution.  The  Senators  from  Indiana 
made  several  attempts  to  get  an  appropriation  for 
improving  the  navigation  of  the  Wabash  river,  but 
their  bills  were  vetoed. — They  then  endeavored  to 
get  a  port  of  entry  established  higher  up  the  river,  so 
that  it  might  become  constitutional  to  make  the  con 
templated  improvements.  This  suggested  to  a  friend 
of  ours  in  the  House  of  Representatives  a  most  com 
pendious  remedy  for  the  evil  He  drew  up  a  resolu 
tion,  (I  believe  he  did  not  offer  it,)  making  the  High 
Lands  which  separate  the  waters  falling  into  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico  from  those  falling  into  the  Atlantic  and 
the  St.  Lawrence,  one  continuous  port  of  entry,  so 
that  it  might  become  constitutional  to  improve  the 
navigation  of  all  below.  But  ridiculous  as  these  dis- 


18 

tinctions  were,  they  served  to  concentrate  power  and 
influence  in  the  hands  of  the  Executive.  It  caused 
those  who  sought  favors  from  Government  to  seek 
them  through  him,  and  it  made  his  very  caprices  more 
potent  than  the  sound  intelligence  of  the  nation  be 
sides,  backed  and  supported  by  the  constitution  of 
the  country. 

It  has  been  another  favorite  pursuit  of  the  past  Ad 
ministration,  by  every  means  which  could  be  used 
with  effect,  either  by  new  legislation,  or  by  new  and 
arbitrary  construction,  to  render  the  laws  vague,  so 
that  much  discretion  should  be  left  to  the  public  offi 
cers  in  their  execution.  I  need  instance  only  the  in 
roads  which  have  been  made  upon  our  land  system, 
formerly  the  most  perfect  perhaps  that  was  ever  de 
vised. 

Instead  of  regular  sales  to  the  highest  bidders,  a 
fair  competition  and  equal  privileges  to  all  purchasers, 
and  the  universal  right  to  make  entries  after  closing 
the  sales,  such  as  it  was  under  our  old  and  well  tried 
system,  a  set  of  pre-emption  laws  were  commenced 
under  the  last  Administration,  and  continued  until  the 
winter  of  1835-6,  when  we  succeeded,  at  last,  in  ar 
resting  their  progress:  but  we  could  not  put  an  end 
to  the  evils  which  they  had  produced.  I  need  not  de 
tail  to  you,  gentlemen,  the  frauds,  the  peculation,  the 
lawless  violence  that  had  its  origin  in  these  pre-emp 
tion  laws,  which  were  feigned  to  be  intended  for  the 
benefit  of  the  poor,  while,  in  fact,  they  only  increased 
the  already  overgrown  fortunes  of  the  rich  speculator 
and  monopolist. — I  look  at  it  here  in  a  different  and 
more  important  aspect — as  a  measure,  a  part  of  a 
system,  whose  whole  tendency  was  to  put  down  the 
law  and  the  power  of  the  law,  and  substitute  in  its 
place  personal  caprice  and  Executive  discretion.  The 
right  to  pre-emptions  had  to  be  proved  before  the 


19 

Registers  and  Receivers  of  the  Land  offices,  and  their 
certificate  was  generally  conclusive  of  the  claim.  A 
legal  right  might  be  lost  by  the  ill-will  of  those  offi 
cers;  a  claim  not  legal  might  be  sustained  by  their 
favor.  In  some  cases  they  became  partners  in  the 
claims  which  had  to  pass  under  their  sanction:  In 
others,  they  contented  themselves  with  advancing  the 
interests  of  their  personal  friends  and  political  parti- 
zans.  Sometimes  appeals  were  taken  from  the  deci 
sions  of  Registers  and  Receivers  to  the  Commissioner 
of  the  General  Land  Office;  and  while  our  fellow- 
citizen,  Governor  Brown,  was  at  the  head  of  that 
bureau,  neither  private  fraud  nor  political  favoritism 
was  countenanced  there.  But  he  was  too  honest  to 
hold  office  in  those  times,  and  under  that  Administra 
tion.  His  situation  was  rendered  unpleasant ;  he  was 
annoyed,  assailed,  ridiculed,  and  at  last  resigned. 

As  the  measures  of  the  past  Administration  are  to 
be  carried  out  by  the  present,  we  shall,  no  doubt, 
have  forced  upon  the  country  another  set  of  pre-emp 
tion  laws;  the  vocation  of  the  professional  squatter 
will  become  again  a  profitable  vocation,  and,  if  any 
of  you  venture  to  go  to  the  West  to  bid  for  land  at 
the  public  sales,  with  the  hope  of  securing  a  favorite 
spot  on  which  to  settle  your  children,  your  bid  will 
be  drowned  by  the  voice  of  an  angry  multitude,  or 
yourselves  assailed  for  daring  to  oppose  the  new  power 
which  has  risen  up  and  taken  the  place  of  law  under 
the  late  glorious  Administration. 

By  means  like  these,  which  I  have  touched  upon, 
but  have  not  been  able  fully  to  detail,  all  the  patronage 
and  power  of  the  Government,  the  power  of  removal, 
the  Legislative  power,  the  dispensing  power,  the  Ju 
dicial  power — all  the  powers  of  the  Government  ex 
cept  the  control  over  the  public  purse,  have  been  drawn 
together  and  centered  in  a  single  hand: — and  did  he 


20 


leave  the  PUBLIC  PURSE,  the  other  great  lever  with 
which  nations  are  moved  and  directed,  did  he  leave 
that  untouched,  or  unattempted  ?  No ;  the  struggle  for 
that,  is  too  recent,  was  too  long  continued  and  too 
fierce,  to  have  teen  overlooked  or  forgotten. — We 
see  too  many  of  the  consequences  of  that  contest 
around  us,  we  feel  too  strongly  its  effects  to  let  it  pass 
suddenly  or  lightly  from  our  memory. 

At  the  time  of  the  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  in  1816,  that  Bank  was  made  the  depositary  of 
the  public  monies,  and  also  the  fiscal  agent  of  the 
Government.  In  its  capacity  as  depositary  it  belonged 
to  the  representatives  of  the  States  and  the  people— 
the  two  Houses  of  Congress — and  was  properly  re 
sponsible  to  them  alone.  As  the  disbursing  agent  it 
was  the  agent  of  the  Executive,  subject  to  the  per 
formance  of  certain  duties  prescribed  by  law — in  all 
other  respects  it  was  a  private  corporation,  subject  to 
individual  control,  and  partook  no  more  of  a  political 
character  than  any  other  chartered  institution  of  the 
country.  So  it  was  considered,  so  it  acted,  and  dur 
ing  the  Administration  of  Mr.  Adams  and  the  first 
year  of  President  Jackson,  no  one  attributed  to  it  a 
party  or  political  character. 

But  when  the  new  Administration  got  in  power,  the 
possible  use  that  might  be  made  of  this  moneyed  in 
stitution  in  cementing  the  influence  or  rewarding  the 
partizans  of  the  new  Administration  was  not  over 
looked. 

Gen.  Jackson  was  elected  to  the  Presidency  in  No 
vember  1828,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  on  the  4th 
day  of  March,  1829;  and  between  the  time  of  his 
election  and  inauguration  the  first  efforts  were  begun 
to  gain  over  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  in  which 
were  the  public  deposites,  so  as  to  make  it  and  the 
deposites  the  instruments  of  Executive  will.  The  first 


21 


effort  was  made  in  Kentucky  by  certain  members  of 
Congress  from  that  State,  friendly  to  the  new  Ad 
ministration,  who  caused  a  paper  to  be  presented  to 
the  cashier  of  the  bank  of  Lexington,  naming  several 
individuals  as  directors  of  the  branch  at  that  place, 
who,  it  was  said,  would  be  acceptable  to  the  party  in 
power.  The  character  and  standing  of  the  individuals 
named  did  not,  as  it  appears  from  the  accompanying 
documents,  stand  too  high  to  justify  an  opinion  that 
if  appointed  by  the  instruction  of  party  leaders  they 
would  be  used  for  party  purposes.  The  attempt  at 
dictation  was  at  once  repelled  by  the  Bank. 

The  second  effort  was  made  by  Isaac  Hill  and 
some  other  prominent  party  leaders  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  to  remove  a  President  of  the  Portsmouth 
Rank,  because  his  politics  were  not  agreeable  to  the 
party  in  power.  This  proposition  assumed  a  semi 
official  character,  and  though  believed  to  have  the 
sanction  of  the  cabinet,  it  was  rejected  without  hesi 
tation.  But  this  rejection  was  followed  by  a  long 
and  deadly  war  waged  by  the  Executive  against  that 
Rank,  which  ended  in  its  destruction  as  a  national 
institution.  The  first  decisive  attack  is  made  by  the 
President,  in  his  message  of  the  7th  December,  1830, 
in  which  he  proposes  to  organize  a  bank  as  a  branch 
of  the  Treasury  Department,  with  the  necessary  of 
fices,  based  on  public  and  individual  deposites,  with 
permission  to  sell  bills  of  exchange  to  individuals. 
A  bank  in  which  the  public  money  was  to  be  deposited, 
with  president,  directors,  cashier,  every  officer  ap 
pointed,  and  its  whole  machinery  moved  by  the  Execu 
tive  hand.  This  is  what  he  essayed  to  make  of  the 
Rank  of  the  United  States ;  failing  in  this  he  then 
disclosed  his  purpose  to  pull  down  that  bank  and 
build  up  another  institution  which  should  do  his 
bidding.  Hence  followed  the  VETO  upon  the  bill 


22 

rechartering  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.— At  the 
time,   in   the  message   containing  this  Veto   and   the 
reasons,  wild  and  inconsistent  as  they  were,  I  saw  the 
fixed  purpose  of  the  President,  and  I  saw,  or  thought 
I  saw,  the  consequences  which  would  follow  the  pur 
suit  of  that  purpose.     But  much  as  was  said  of  the 
injury  to  our  currency,  the  destruction  of  exchanges, 
the  general  prostration  of  business  and  commerce,  the 
suffering  of  the  poor,  the  misery  of  the  debtor,  and 
all    the   evil   rind   unhappy   consequences   which   must 
follow  a  shock,  such  as  this  which  was  to  come  upon 
our  country,  I  felt  that  it  was  all  of  small  importance 
compared  with   the  danger  to  our  institutions   from 
following  out   the   Executive   plans   for   the   assump 
tion  of  the  public  purse,  with   the  other   powers  of 
government  that  he  had  gathered  in  his  hands.     But 
there   was   one   circumstance   which    I    long    hoped 
would  save  us   from  the  final  consummation   of  all 
these   mischiefs   and   the     full    concentration    of    all 
power  in  the  bold  hand  that  was  so  eager  to  grasp  it. 
The  plans  of  the  President  could  not  be  carried  out 
— a  Treasury  bank  could  not  be  established,  filled  to 
overflowing  with   the   accumulating    and    increasing 
revenues,  until  the  year  1836,  when  the  charter  of  the 
bank  which  held  the  public  deposites  by  law  should 
expire,  and  within  one  year  of  which  time  his  term 
of  service  would  expire  also. — It  was  not  to  be  ore- 
sumed  that  any  man  would  succeed  him  having  the 
will  and  the   POWER  to   carry  his   purposes   to  their 
result. 

But  it  was  determined  by  the  President  not  to  wait 
the  slow  efflux  of  time.  Hence  the  message  of  1830, 
calling  the  attention  of  Congress  to  the  subject  of 
the  Bank,  or  rather  a  bank,  to  be  built  upon  its  ruins. 
Hence,  his  message  to  Congress  in  December,  1832, 
in  which  he  suggested  doubts  whether  the  Bank  of 
the  United  States  were  a  safe  depositary  of  the  pub- 


23 


lie  funds.  That  it  was  not  in  good  faith  with  a  view 
of  ascertaining  whether  it  was  safe,  I  infer  from  the 
fact  that  after  a  full  investigation  had  been  made  by 
an  agent  appointed  by  himself — after  a  most  elabo 
rate  and  careful  examination  by  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  on  the  same  subject,  both  of  which  ended 
in  conclusive,  absolute  proof  that  the  public  deposites 
were  safe,  and  that  the  bank  was  well  conducted  for 
the  interests  of  the  country,  a  conclusion  in  which 
the  House  of  Representatives  almost  unanimously 
concurred ;  he  set  on  foot  at  once,  immediately  on  the 
adjournment  of  Congress,  negociations  and  arrange 
ments  for  removing  those  deposites  on  his  own  re 
sponsibility.  This  was  one  of  his  most  powerful  and 
determined  efforts.  To  accomplish  this  he  set  at  de 
fiance  the  Constitution  and  the  Laws  and  a  sacred 
compact  of  the  nation.  To  effect  this,  he  removed 
two  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury,  the  one  to  another 
department,  the  other  he  dismissed  from  service  be 
fore  he  could  find  an  instrument  subservient  and 
reckless  enough  to  do  the  deed.  This  violation  of 
the  faith  of  the  nation  in  a  monied  transaction — 
this  blow  upon  the  credit  of  the  country — the  plac 
ing  of  the  immense  public  treasure  in  a  number  of 
irresponsible  banks  where  it  would  remain  to  tempt 
the  cupidity  of  those  who  had  it  in  their  reach,  and 
awaken  an  inordinate  spirit  of  speculation — all  com 
bined,  were  decisive  of  the  present  fate  of  our  com 
merce  and  our  currency.  Its  destiny  was  sealed;  no 
human  power  could  afterwards  save  us  from  the 
shock,  though  wise  counsels  might  have  weakened  its 
force,  and  have  put  off  for  awhile  the  evil  day.  But 
our  doom  was  from  that  moment  fixed,  the  day  of 
tribulation  was  coming  and  must  come,  and  it  must 
and  did  come  through  these  new  fiscal  agents,  got 
up  by  Executive  usurpation.  I  need  not  tell  you, 
fellow-citizens,  for  you  all  remember  with  what  energy 


24 


this  act  of  the  President  was  opposed  in  the  Senate 
—how  much  the  consequences  were  deprecated  and 
how  justly  depicted,  and  how  deep  the  wound  that 
was  alleged  to  be  inflicted  upon  the  Constitution  and 
Liberty  of  our  country.  They  cannot  be  forgotten — 
they  have  been  kept  constantly  before  the  public — 
charged  by  the  agents  and  advocates  of  Executive 
power  as  effusions  of  disappointed  ambition  or  party 
malevolence,  while  those  who  urged  and  those  who 
uttered  them  have  constantly  asserted  and  reiterated 
the  same  opinions  and  renewed  the  same  predictions. 
It  was  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  with  all  its  train 
of  abominations,  that  the  Legislature  of  Ohio,  in  the 
winter  of  1834-'5,  instructed  me  to  sustain,  and  it 
was  because  I  would  not  betray  my  trust  and  connive 
at  a  violation  of  the  Constitution  of  our  country, 
and  Income  a  party  to  all  the  mischiefs  which  were 
to  follow  in  the  train  of  that  lawless  act — it  was  for 
this  that  I  was  denounced  and  pursued  by  the  mar 
shalled  host  of  political  Janissaries. 

Though  the  disease  which  has  been  brought  upon 
our  currency  has  now  become  so  inveterate  that  no 
remedy  which  will  be  applied  can  effect  a  cure,  yet 
it  may  be  interesting  for  a  moment  to  trace  the  sev 
eral  stages  by  which  it  has  been  brought  to  its  pres 
ent  degree  of  virulence.  The  first  blow  that  was  dealt 
by  the  Executive  arm  at  the  great  moneyed  institu 
tion,  was  the  origin  of  the  evil,  though  its  effects 
were  not  at  once  apparent.  The  removal  of  the  de 
posites  aggravated  and  hastened  the  crisis,  not  so 
much  by  weakening  the  Bank  of  the  United  States, 
as  by  placing  an  immense  amount  of  public  money 
in  the  hands  of  the  Executive  and  his  subordinate 
agents.  Shortly  after  the  removal  of  the  deposites 
the  amount  of  public  money  arose  to  an  immense 
sum,  and  as  it  was  credit  only,  it  possessed  the  at 
tribute  of  multiplying  itself  to  an  indefinite  extent. 


25 


There  was,  for  example,  one  million  of  dollars  of 
the  public  money  in  a  deposite  bank,  more  than  would 
be  probably  drawn  out  in  the  current  year  for  the 
purposes  of  Government ;  that  bank  would  therefore 
lend  this  million  for  the  purpose  of  making  interest 
upon  it.  The  money  so  loaned  would  be  paid  into 
the  Land-Offices  or  for  Customs  and  immediately 
deposited  in  the  same  bank,  to  be  loaned  again  and 
again  for  the  same  purpose.  Such  was  the  course  of 
thin;;- s  occurring  in  numerous  banks,  which  the  abun 
dance  of  fictitious  capital  multiplied  beyond  any  former 
precedent,  until  speculation,  instigated  by  the  fictitious 
state  of  things,  run  out  into  wild  excess. 

The  unparallelled  sales  of  the  public  lands  which 
took  place  last  year,  amounting  to  more  than  twenty- 
three  millions  of  dollars,  were  the  legitimate 
fruits  of  the  removal  of  the  deposites.  This  is  no 
new  thought  of  mine.  In  my  speech  on  the  Land 
Bill,  on  the  15th  and  16th  days  of  March,  1836,  I 
advanced  the  idea,  and  somewhat  at  large  developed 
the  mode  of  its  operation;  and  I  added,  that  what 
the  government  receives  for  their  land  "is  not  money 
hut  a  cheat,"  mere  trash,  and  that  "every  thing  is 
tending  to  a  catastrophe  similar  to  that  of  1818."  I 
believe  I  had  not  the  date  of  the  past  commercial 
catastrophe  exactly  right,  but  as  to  the  then  future 
catastrophe,  no  one  will  say  that  I  erred  very  widely 
in  my  prediction  of  its  coming. 

In  the  session  of  1833-'4,  familiarly  called  the 
"panic  session,"  (we  hear  of  no  "panic"  now)  Mr. 
Clay  in  speaking  of  the  change  of  the  public  deposites, 
likened  the  Bank  in  which  they  had  been  placed,  to  a 
good  strong  ship,  the  Constitution,  and  the  several 
new  depositaries  to  a  fleet  of  "bark  canoes  tied  to 
gether  by  a  grape  vine."  He  thought  they  might  float 
awhile  in  fair  weather  and  on  a  smooth  sea,  but  the 
first  fresh  breeze  that  passed  over  them  would,  he 
said,  send  them  and  their  freight  to  the  bottom.  The 


26 


only  mistake  in  those  who  predicted  the  event,  was 
in  entertaining  the  hope  that  they  would  not  sink  so 
suddenly.  But  I  have  often  said,  and  I  repeat  it,  I 
look  upon  the  injury  to  our  currency — the  mischiefs 
done  to  the  present  interests  of  the  community,  as  of 
small  importance  compared  with  that  inflicted  upon 
the  Constitution,  and  the  danger  which  it  involves  to 
the  liberties  of  our  republic.  I  have  not  spoken,  nor 
will  I  speak,  of  that  miserably  ill-judged  expedient, 
the  Treasury  Circular,  the  last  arbitrary  act  of  a 
retiring  despot,  intended  to  strengthen  the  deposite 
banks  by  emptying  into  them  the  vaults  of  all  others, 
but  which  led  to  private  hoarding  and  took  from 
those  banks  more  than  it  gave.  I  will  not  speak  of 
it  nor  dwell  upon  it:  In  truth,  I  sicken  at  the  mere 
recital  of  the  usurpations  of  power  and  the  wrongs 
which  have  been  borne  for  years  by  this  misgoverned 
nation.  If  it  were  but  the  miserable,  silly  experiment 
of  a  hard  money  currency  which  was,  in  truth,  the 
object  of  those  who  guide  the  Executive  counsels, 
we  might  consider  it  as  ended,  and  laugh  at  it  and 
at  the  suffering  which  it  has  brought  upon  us ;  but 
let  us  not  flatter  ourselves  with  such  a  belief.  The 
hard  money  currency — the  new  mints  at  Dahlonega 
and  Orleans  which  were  to  coin  the  yellow  boys,  the 
real  mint  drops,  that  were  to  shine  through  the  long 
silken  purses  of  our  farmers,  was  a  mere  hoax — a 
tub  for  the  whale.  The  projectors  were  never  silly 
enough  to  doubt  how  this  would  all  end.  They 
knew,  and  all  of  us  knew,  that  it  would  end  in  the  de 
struction  of  the  subject  which  they  professed  to  im 
prove — but  they  knew  also,  while  the  experiment  was 
in  progress  it  would  cover  their  march  to  absolute 
power.  So  far,  the  Executive  has  moved  on  with 
giant  strides  toward  this  object,  and  will  the  present 
incumbent,  who  is  pledged  to  carry  out  the  prin 
ciples  of  his  predecessor,  go  forward  in  his  foot- 


27 


steps?  If  that  be  his  purpoes  he  will  seize  upon  the 
present  disturbed  condition  of  the  country,  and  the 
excited  state  of  the  public  mind  and  attempt  at  once, 
without  argument  or  discussion,  to  establish  a 
TREASURY  BANK  which  shall  be  the  mere  creature 
of  the  Executive  will.  And  why,  if  this  be  not  his 
purpose — why  was  Congress  on  a  sudden  convened 
after  the  state  of  things  became  irremediable,  when 
their  convention  was  refused,  though  demanded  by  the 
united  voice  of  the  commercial  community  while  re 
lief  was  yet  possible?  But  let  not  the  friends  of  the 
Constitution  and  of  the  country  be  for  a  moment 
deceived  by  any  bait  which  he  may  throw  out,  or 
drawn  into  any  snare  which  he  may  set  for  them. 
Tf  the  President  be  now  ready  to  resign  a  portion  of 
his  ill-gotten  and  misused  power — if  he  will  truly  sur 
render  the  public  purse  into  the  hands  of  the  Repre 
sentatives  of  the  People,  let  them  go  hand  in  hand 
with  him  in  counting  the  mischiefs  of  the  past,  but  let 
them  not  compromise  or  yield  up  any  of  the  sacred 
rights  and  duties  with  which  they  are  entrusted ;  es 
pecially  not  by  a  vote  of  theirs,  surrender  the  public 
purse  into  the  hands  which  have  assumed  it,  and  thus 
make  legal  the  plunder.  If  their  stand  be  firm  in  this' 
last  crisis,  and  their  effort  vigorous,  success  will  at 
tend  them,  for  the  crown  and  strength  of  the  adver 
sary  are  departed.  The  present  Executive  may  pledge 
himself  to  "carry  out  the  principles  of  the  past,"  but, 
thank  God,  the  power — the  moral  energy — is  want 
ing.  The  pigmy  that  occupies  the  hold  cannot  hurl 
the  lance  nor  wear  the  armour  of  the  absent  giant. 
He  has  the  sword  but  not  the  arm  to  wield  it.  Des 
potism,  which  has  made  long  and  rapid  strides,  may 
be  bid  to  stand — nay,  it  may  be  driven  back  in  its 
footsteps — the  country,  though  long  misgoverned,  may 
be  still  saved,  if  the  friends  of  the  Constitution,  in 
every  part  of  the  Union,  will  rally,  unite  and  come  to 
the  rescue. 


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